Throwing Heavy Things
Early in the school year Jordan had decided to lift weights rather than play sports. But he was told that the weight room was reserved during after school hours for members of the track team, so he decided to go out for track. He now throws the discus and the shot put. Last Saturday was Rosslyn Academy's first track meet of the year. The whole family and some other Mennonite missionaries went to Rosslyn to watch the track meet. Jordan finished 3rd in the discuss, and he was first in the shot put, setting a new Rosslyn record in his first meet.
Saying Goodbye, Again!
One of the sad parts of being a missionary is saying goodbye. Having been in Africa since 1989 we have said goodbye to friends more times than I can even remember. Many people have come into our lives over these years, and we've had to say goodbye as they've left. I think that after a while, at least for myself, I've become a bit hardened to establishing close friendships with those I know who will be around for only a few years.
Jim and Cathy Bowman served in Kenya with MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) for the past 4 years. They returned to Virginia this past week. We will miss them. Jim is the man in the blue shirt sitting next to me, and Cathy is in a white dress across the table.
Cindy took the picture, so she's not in it.
New Dog(s)
We got two new dogs: one in August and one in September. Cindy and Alia bought a puppy, Sirius, from a 'dog vendor' along the road. Then we got Simba, a five-year-old female dog, from a family that was leaving Kenya. Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way we would have liked. On her first day here, Simba bit Cindy when Cindy had approached her from behind and Simba was still nervous about her new home. However, she seemed to settle down. Generally, she was a friendly and playful dog. But she didn't like anyone bothering her food as she ate. Of course Sirius, the puppy, couldn't quite understand that. A couple of times Simba attacked Sirius and injured him. So we decided that we had to give Simba away. So now she is gone.
Sirius remains with us, and he is an enthusiastic and growing puppy. He gets very excited when I come home from work and leaps like a gazelle. His excitement intimidates Alia though.
Cindy and Jessica with Sirius when he was just bought.
Simba before we gave her away.
Sunday at Mukuru Mennonite Church
Mukuru Mennonite Church is not easy to find. You must go down several small muddy paths through the Mukuru slums to find it. It was our first time to go there for a worship service and we weren't sure what to expect. I had visited during the week about a year ago with Clair Good.
I was preaching and Nairobi has been having problems with power outages. As I get older, I don't see as well without good lighting - so I was hoping there would be no power cuts while I was preaching. Well, not a thing to worry about! The church building doesn't have electricity anyway. There is simply a large hole cut into the
mabati, iron sheet, near the pulpit to give light. It was enough light, but I did have to ask the man translator (into Swahili) to move to my left side so he would not block the light.
Sunday School was before the main service. Unfortunately, in Kenya there is not much discussion in Sunday School. It usually consists of another, possibly more teaching-like sermon. Pastor Manoa was talking about how God is still God, even when we have difficulty. In Kenya there are many 'Miracle Crusade", so Pastor Manoa told the church that chasing miracles isn't the answer, because it leads to the worship of miracles rather than God. One of his examples was that if you didn't have food to eat yesterday, God is still God. WOW!! I wasn't expecting that. That is the daily experience of people from Mukuru.
For myself, I preached for the first time in my life a sort of prosperity Gospel sermon. People need hope! And they need to know that God is on their side. I said that God blesses us because of His love, not because we give money to a preacher. I also encouraged them to use whatever blessings that we might receive from God, to increase the blessing. I used Jesus's parable about the three servants and the master who gave each a different amount of money (or talents in the KJV).
There were about 30 people at church. After the service we toured the compound. They also have a primary school (K thru 2nd) at the church. They hope to add grade 3 next year. None of the classrooms have electricity. Kids sit on wooden benches and the rooms are fairly dark, with a few small open holes in the iron sheets for windows. You can't make these 'windows' very big because of the rains. The blackboards are small pieces of plywood that have been painted black. The church feeds the students a noon meal, which is sometimes the only meal these children receive in a day. The leaders of the church and school said that the hope to get larger black boards and another small building to add additional classes.
